More on Dean's Love Affair With Jefferson Davis

The other candidates are starting to pile on Dean for his comment about he's the candidate for "the guy with the Confederate Flag on his pickup truck." In addtion to Kerry and Gephardt, Edwards is now also crticizing Dean for his remark. Trying to appeal to southern white males might be a sound campaign strategy, but Dean is just a buffoon for saying what he said. In the first place, he probably will not get the bubbas behind him. It doesn't matter how much he likes guns or that he totally killed a charging bear with .50 caliber Desert Eagle, the South will not swoon for Howard Dean, because he's a New Englander and he signed civil unions into law. Dean's comment is also probably coutnerproductive to his southern strategy, since it might have been seen as condescending by many southerners, who basically took his words to mean "I'm the guy for all the dumb, banjo struming, cousing screwing white trash down in Dixie land. That means you, you stupid bastard." Finally, what Dean said was foolish because it will weaken his support among blacks, a key (and often underappreciated) constinuency for the Democrats.